Mary Hill works full-time at an Amazon warehouse. Described by her coworkers as “a legendary fighter for justice and kindness,” Mary has beat cancer three times while also taking on Amazon in one of the most vibrant union campaigns we’ve seen. Mary has kept packing boxes at Amazon with a chemo pump in her liver because Amazon won’t pay her if she doesn’t show up. Contribute to Mary’s GoFundMe here.
Keith Bullard also works at Amazon. Right now he is struggling to take time off to recover from major heart surgery, because he is ineligible for paid medical leave. In the months leading up to his surgery, Keith worked through intense back pain and life-threatening high blood pressure because he couldn’t afford to take time off. Despite his heart surgery, Keith is feeling the pressure to return to work as quickly as possible to support his family. Contribute to Keith’s GoFundMe here.
We talk to a lot of Amazon workers, and their stories have a common refrain: Amazon, one of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world, doesn’t want to share with the folks who make those profits possible.
When it comes to our elders working there, that looks like Mary and Keith working through cancer and heart surgery without adequate paid time off. It looks like returning to work without receiving accommodations to do jobs that won’t, in Mary’s case, pull out the chemo pump or otherwise prevent recovery.
And for many seniors working at Amazon, retirement is simply not an option. Workers have told us that while Amazon boasts about its 401K retirement generosity, it only matches 50% of their contributions and only up to 2% of their yearly salary. As Mary told us, “Hardly anybody has any Amazon retirement money. Associates barely make enough to scrape by for basic necessities like rent, gas, and utilities.”
Another worker shared with us, “You see a lot of people hobbling, limping around the warehouse–including many cases of swollen legs from diabetes or even stroke tremors–who should not have to be working at all.”
This needs to stop. All workers deserve dignity. All workers deserve to take care of their health. All workers deserve their basic needs to be met, and all workers deserve a peaceful retirement. Full stop.
Thank you for your support.
In Solidarity,
The Labor Force